Analysis of The Mystic Sea

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



The smell of the sea in my nostrils,
The sound of the sea in mine ears;
The touch of the spray on my burning face,
Like the mist of reluctant tears.

The blue of the sky above me,
The green of the waves beneath;
The sun flashing down on a gray-white sail
Like a scimitar from its sheath.

And ever the breaking billows,
And ever the rocks' disdain;
And ever a thrill in mine inmost heart
That my reason cannot explain.

So I say to my heart, 'Be silent,
The mystery of time is here;
Death's way will be plain when we fathom the main,
And the secret of life be clear.'


Scheme XXXX XAXA XBXB XXBX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (50%)
Metre 011010110 01101011 0110111101 10110101 01101011 0110101 0110110111 101111 01001010 0100101 010010111 11101001 111111110 01001111 11111111001 00101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 557
Words 115
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 108
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

34 sec read
105

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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